by cmsellers » Sat Jul 04, 2020 10:08 pm
The five that come to mind to me as possibilities are animals, immigrants, children, mental illnesses, and pedophiles.
I've made my views on animal rights/animal liberation known many times, but I always assumed that it would take until we had at least vat-grown meat, and possibly until we have sufficiently advanced computer simulations for medical research, before it became mainstream. However, as I watch the green movement try to force everyone into veganism, and I hear about videogames banning leather, I worry they may win out sooner than I expected. However, this isn't so much an "I can't understand," as I understand perfectly what they believe and I think it stems from being urbanites who've had minimal contact with animals and see them as sort of fluffy people.
With immigrants, we're seeing a move towards open borders now. As global warming renders large swaths of the tropics less inhabitable (and especially if it shuts down the Gulf Stream, leading Europe to freeze), I could see it becoming a moral imperative for young people to let anyone live anywhere. I'd like to see looser immigration restrictions, but I'm still not convinced of the feasibility of open borders.
Children begin to develop their own identities at around seven or eight, and this process picks up dramatically around eleven or twelve. But our laws still often treat minors as legal extensions of their parents, and this is something that I think will and should change. I can imagine a future where teenagers get more control over their education, finances, free time, religious observation, and possibly even the right to vote, and I would support this.
I'm already seeing people saying that it's not acceptable to criticize narcissists, psychopaths, and borderline people for behavior that can be attributed to their mental illnesses. I can imagine a future in which "it's my diagnosis" becomes a legitimate excuse. As an autistic person who saw many "self-diagnosed" autistic people try to do exactly this, I'm horrified. I also think that "self-diagnosis" will become much more acceptable, as it already is in the autistic and trans communities.
Until about two weeks ago, I would have said "non-offending pedophiles," except that there are apparently teenagers now who post about how all pedophiles are valid, which is something I recently learned and wish I hadn't.
Incest wasn't even on my radar, but then I don't have a hot sister.